Dynamic Wealth Management Headlines: Zurich Steps Closer to Entering Latin America Market

http://dynamicwealthmanagementtips.com/2011/07/dynamic-wealth-management-headlines-zurich-steps-closer-to-entering-latin-america-market/

Zurich Financial Services Group says it has signed a definitive agreement with Banco Santander SA to buy a majority interest in the bank’s Latin America insurance operations.

The Zurich, Switzerland-based insurer says the agreement is “materially unchanged from what was announced” on Feb. 22.

The carrier went on to say that it and Madrid, Spain-based Banco Santander expect the transaction to be completed before the end of this year.

Earlier this year, Zurich announced it signed a 25-year distribution agreement with Banco Santander where it would acquire 51 percent of the bank’s insurance business in Latin America and Santander would keep the remaining 49 percent.

Zurich will pay Santander $1.67 billion in a combination cash and financed deal for its book of business.

The insurer will have access to 5,600 bank branches and an additional 36 million customers in five South American countries.

Thirty percent of the business is general insurance, primarily homeowners insurance, and the bulk of the rest is in life products.

In 2010, Santander’s Latin American insurance operations delivered a net profit of $328 million.

Zurich says the deal would make the company the 6^th largest non-life insurer in the region, increasing its market share in the region to 3 percent. Once complete, Zurich becomes the 3^rd largest life insurer in the region and the 4^thlargest insurer overall in Latin America.

Dynamic Wealth Management Headlines: 6 Questions to Ask Your Financial Adviser

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Making the decision to hire a financial adviser is often a tough one for many investors. Once you’ve made this decision, how do you go about finding the right adviser for you? Here are six questions to ask:

How are you compensated? While one could argue that no method of adviser compensation is totally without bias, fee-only advisers come the closest. Fee-only advisers receive no compensation from the sale of investment or insurance products. Can an adviser who receives a significant portion of their compensation from the sale of financial products really be counted on to recommend solutions that are in your best interest?

[See 50 Best Funds for the Everyday Investor.]

Will my assets be housed with an independent third-party custodian? This applies if the adviser will be providing on-going investment advice. Examples of third-party custodians include Charles Schwab, Fidelity, TD Ameritrade, and most other brokerage firms and mutual fund companies. A third-party custodian provides periodic (monthly or at least quarterly) statements independent of any reports provided by the adviser. Bernie Madoff’s failure to use an independent custodian enabled him to defraud investors for so many years. If an adviser tells you that you don’t need this type of arrangement, end the meeting and leave immediately. This is a deal-killer and should raise many red flags.

Dynamic Wealth Management Headlines: Acer Hacked; Hackers Assure a Press Conference in 24hrs

http://dynamicwealth-management.com/2011/06/dynamic-wealth-management-headlines-acer-hacked-hackers-assure-a-press-conference-in-24hrs/

Security seems to have become the bone of contention for the major players in the tech space, today. It is if there isn’t enough mockery made out of security in the recent PSN hack case, that yet another player in the market has had its security compromised. In yet another instance, popular technology brand, Acer is now finding itself grappling with a data breach that has reportedly cost it the details of over 40,000 customers. The details compromised includes their names, addresses, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, as also the names of the products purchased by the customers.